Dinosaurs: A Fun-Filed Trip Back in Time review

It's the third anniversary of Mesozoic Mind. It's been a long three years so far, but I'm doing well, and I promise I will post more (or at least go back to just two per month ata minimum - without burning myself out). What better way to celebrate the oocassion then where I got the inspiration for this very blog's title: Dinosaurs: A Fun-Filed Trip Back in Time.

This 1987 VHS short that's actually an extension of a 1980 short produced by the great Will Vinton, simply titled "Dinosaur". Both of them are made in the midst of the Dinosaur Rennaisance and the renewed interest in the subject. Land Before Time was in theatres that year for just one example of 80's dino-mania, the kind that gave rise to Jurassic Park.

The doc starts with a young kid named Phillip, played by Fred Savage, struggling to get an idea for his science report but can't, and his mother is nagging him about it. However, a song comes up on his boombox, and it leads into the very reason I titled this blog Mesozoic Mind: an animated sequence with a song by the band Charmer. It's a pretty good song if I say so myself, even if I have no intention of listening to it during writing this.

Phillip now has inspiration for what he wants for his science project has a dream which serves as the work's recap of the basics of palaeontology, where he wanders through dark caves and a void, and cracks fossils (from the Field Museum, no less) open, all as a disembodied narrator talks to him. All the while, we see book ilustrations panned and scanned. I don't fault them for using it given the likely-miniscule budget.

Then we see a dinosaur to cap the segment off as music gets tense and the sound gets loud. You may recognise the setting for all this as The Third Planet gallery at Milwaukee Public Museum. Indeed, the dinosaur is the famous diorama of the T. rex and Triceratops.

The next day (and transitioning to the Will Vinton short) Phillip finishes things up and gives the school report. Only heard by voice are the teacher and other students, including meatheaded jock Richard and a girl named Margaret.

The second half of D:AFFTBIT covers general topics about dinosaurs, such as izr and diet, as well as mention a few specific genera. It starts with Phillip introducing what dinosaur means, and their varying size. Then he mentions though extinct, birds may be dinosaur descendants.

Phillip moves onto dinosaurs' diet, while squeezing in one about fossils after another student comments about diosaurs eating people and how we know of them through fossils. We then see a Styracosaurus and generic theropod eat to represent herbiviory and carnivory, the latter giving the Styraco a glare that says all.

A Brachiosaurus stomps in before the inevitable can happen. Phillip then gives mention of the theory sauropods had two brains to help transmit nerve signals, handily demonstrated with some TNT falling on the tail.

Phillip mentions Ankylosaurus and its body armour. Then finally comes Tyannosaurus as Phillip talks it up as the ultimate killing machine.

A student then asks what happened. Phillip flatly says "They died" as the T. rex falls over, and then talks about extinction theories of the time. Given its the 80's, the asteroid impsct is not front and centre here.

It then segues into a long claymation sequence of dinosaurs in their time going about their lives, a la Fantasia's The Rite of Spring. Special mention goes to an appearence by Supersaurus, here restored as a brachiosaur due to confusion with the now-invalid Ultrasaurus. 

Then just like in The Rite of Spring, a T. rex comes in, scaring off the other dinosaurs and actually eating a Quetzalcoatlus (good ol' 80's g rating amiright?), before coming at the audience, only vanishing when the teacher erases it all. Over the credits, Phillip ends the film with saying how the extinction of the dinosaurs at least gave rise to us.

So what do I think of Dinosaurs: A Fun-Filed Trip Back in Time? Not much to be honest, but I think it's good.

I find the final claymation segment the best scene in the short, seeing all the dinosaurs milling about with little narration. I especially like the pinhead quetzes, as I think this is the only time such a depiction has been seen outside books. Above all, I think only Dinosaur 1985 has used claymotion for the nature doc format of palaeodocs on such a scale.

Dinosaurs: A Fun-Filed Trip Back in Time uses both chalk-mimicking 2D animation in addition to the claymotion well. The claymation and 2D animation isn't always fluid, but hey, budget and time and part of the charm. The animation for the "Mesozoic Mind" portion meanwhile is.... eh. Moving on.

Also, the special, especially the second half, is very funny, thanks to the lines of the other students. I remember rewinding the Youtube upload over and over. The TNT bit I mentioned was the biggest offender, but there are others.

The way the doc plays out is also nice. The added prologue does cover a few topics the second half does, most notably the histoy of finding fossils, but do them longer and with slightly more detail, so any overlap is compensated for.

As you can imagine for a work made fourty years ago, nothwithstanding the obvious cartoonish design that are rather Burianian, a lot has aged rather poorly. You can obviously see it in the two-brained sauropod, the ambiguity of how dinosaurs died (and barely mentions the Asteroid impact), and Supersaurus. Thankfully the rest of the information is broad enough to age better then those.

Honestly, the only thing I really dislike is Phillip's mother fot being annoying.

• Accuracy - 6/10
• Aging - 5/10
• Script - 7/10
• Sound Design - 7/10
• Narration - 8/10
• Rewatchability - 8/10
• Visuals - 8/10
• Overall - 8/10

Dinosaurs: A Fun-Filed Trip Back in Time is indeed fun. It's a decent slice of 80's palaeomedia with both humour and a unique aesthethic, and holds up well both in entertainment and information (for the most parts).

Here's to at least making it to 2030.

See Also

• MesozoicMind.com for the other site.